EAWC | How to be a scholar - the basic

English for academic writing and communication · 2024-09-20

Critical thinking

build your own academic vocabulary for academic writing.

Try to be a reviewer.
RAS: reliable, acceptable (authority), sufficiency

Cultivate your ability of critical thinking at anytime.

How to write a literature review

describe the procedures accurately and assure their replicability, making other researchers able to repeat your experiments

How to read research papers

Preparation

  • be acquainted with the fields
  • be critical
  1. get newest research papers through different ways (google scholar, by popular people), find papers that attaches great attention in recent
  2. have a goal to reading

3-pass reading

  1. read the title, abstract, skim the overall paper, understand the aim of the author, see what other people say about the paper
  2. if interested, keep on reading. refer to the formulas, figures and tables in the paper, but not try to analyze them in this pass, evaluate the experimental results (repeatible? critical thinking), find additional resources that help us read
  3. teaching is the best way to understand certain topics, look for more details about the paper

It's never easy to read papers. The key point is "never give up"

How to work with your supervisor

Don't think you are the most intelligent person. If there's something that others don't make a try, there might be traps.

Courtesy (politeness)

  • Have realistic expectations (lower your expectations)

    • the main job of your boss is to get money from projects
    • know what you can do and what you can't do
    • don't be too much ambitious

  • Ask for opinions, not decisions

    • you are the only one who is responsible for your own research
    • you can ask for advice rather than decisions
  • Prefer writing to calling

  • Do not drop by unannounced

    • make reservation in advance
  • Respect your supervisor's time

  • Allow time to respond

    • it's normal to take about one week for your supervisor to make a respond
    • don't urge your supervisor to response you immediately
    • don't be the deadliners and make your supervisor deadliners
  • Let the supervisor set the tone
  • Keep in the loop, don't disappear

  • Do not blame your supervisor

    • he is the only one who can help you or guide you in your research

Email etiquette

The basic

  • Keep the email short, but include all the necessary information

  • Never send an empty email

    • Include: subject, salutation, message, and closing salutation (see next slide)
  • Check for spelling, punctuation, grammar

Tone

  • use professional, polite language (avoid: gonna, wanna, ToT, orz)
  • write positively when possible ("When I finish my assignment" but not "if I finish my assignment)
  • contractions are alright, even friendly
  • be civil

Content

  • think from other people's side

  • explain the situation related to the question you are asking

    • briefly describe history or context of problem
    • explain what you’ve done so far
    • show why the problem needs to be fixed
    • offer suggestions
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